Exploring the Music Behind Age of Empires with Stephen Rippy

Before his work on Dungeon Boss at Boss Fight Entertainment, composer Stephen Rippy and his brother, Boss Fight Founder David Rippy, worked on creative the immersive soundtracks for the critically acclaimed Age of Empires franchise at Ensemble Studios. Many fans remember the games and their soundtracks fondly, such as the folks over at Frame Rate. They recently interviewed Stephen to learn more about his musical background, influences, Ensemble origins, and the story behind the infamous “Wololo.” Below is a brief excerpt, but be sure to read the whole interview by visiting the Frame Rate website.

“The earliest direction we had for “Age of Empires” was to make each piece of music tell some kind of story. We decided on a “hunt” story as the first attempt, which led us to bring some mics out into the woods and make all kinds of dumb sounds that we thought would come across as caveman-like. All that stuff got pieced together with a kind of rhythm bed that changed up as the story progressed – it was an ambitious weekend, but the end result was pretty unintentionally funny.”